Czech
authorities reject most citizenship applicants in EU(Prague
Daily Monitor): "The number of foreigners based in the
Czech Republic has been growing, but only 2000 applicants are
annually granted citizenship and Czech authorities reject more
applicants than other EU countries, according to the Eurostat,
the Czech Statistical Office (CSU) and the Interior Ministry"

EU: Dutch
likely to block Bulgarian, Romanian Schengen bids(Balkan
Insight): "Diplomats in the European Commission have
told Bulgaria's Focus news agency that expansion of the passport-free
Schengen area may not feature on the agenda of the next Justice
and Home Affairs Council in March. If it does, sources say The
Netherlands is likely to again veto the accession of Bulgaria
and Romania on the grounds that they have not undertaken sufficient
reforms in the fight against corruption and organised crime"

GERMANY: Beate
Zschäpe keeps her silence (Deutsche Welle): "Lawyers
for the woman alleged to have been closely involved in a far-right
murder campaign say that she was not a member of the terrorist
group. Prosecutors are pinning their hopes on evidence found
in an exploded house"

GREECE: Angry
protesters occupy DIMAR office(Greek Reporter): "A
group of about 50 protesters occupied the offices of the Democratic
Left, (DIMAR) one of the Greek goverments coalition partners,
in downtown Athens on Jan. 9 before police intervened and removed
them"

GREECE: Fool's
Gold(Schnews): "The rapid expansion of Greece's
homegrown neo-nazi movement, the Golden Dawn, should set alarm
bells ringing for anti-fascists across Europe. On Saturday 19th
January, Athens will see a massive anti-fa demonstration as over
24 organisations spanning the political spectrum assemble. Greek
anti-fascists have called for international solidarity and on
the same day demonstrations will be held outside Greek embassies
across the world. In London supporters can gather outside the
Greek embassy, 1A Holland Park, Notting Hill from 12 noon"

GREECE: Multiple
memory sticks raise new Lagarde list questions (Ekathimerini):
"Following a series of developments in the Lagarde list
probe that suggest the existence of at least three memory sticks
containing the details of some 2,000 Greeks with deposits at
a Swiss branch of HSBC, authorities are hoping that the additional
testimony former Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) chief, Yiannis
Diotis, is to give on Monday will shed some light on the affair"

GREECE: The
tourists held by Greek police as illegal migrants(BBC
News): "Greek police have stepped up efforts to catch
illegal immigrants in recent months, launching a new operation
to check the papers of people who look foreign. But tourists
have also been picked up in the sweeps - and at least two have
been badly beaten"

NORTH AFRICA: Security
issues top Maghreb agenda(Magharebia): "The
prime ministers of Tunisia, Libya and Algeria are set to meet
in Ghadames on Saturday (January 12th) to discuss regional border
security"

Slovenia's
uprising(Eurozine): "Protests at the end of
2012 in Slovenia caught the attention of international newspapers.
Boris Vezjak asks what the goal of this "uprising"
 suddenly a universally popular concept  is, and
whether it might represent more than merely an isolated incident"

SPAIN: Twitterer
called to testify in Spain for Gramsci quote(Global
Voices): "A Twitter user and activist with the 15M indignant
movement, @almu_en_lucha, has been called to testify before the
Spanish police's Technology Crime Squad regarding the content
of some of her Tweets"

UK: Helmand
veterans dispatched to defend Falklands(The Telegraph):
"British veterans of a hotbed of the Taliban insurgency
are being dispatched for a tour of duty in the Falklands amid
increased tensions with Argentina over the islands"

USA: Government
unable to define 'Homeland Security'(Wired): "What
is homeland security? The federal bureaucracy doesnt
know, and thats problematic for a government that has been
fighting the ill-defined war on terror following
9/11, according to a new report from the Congressional Research
Service"

USA: Obama
puts US drone program back into deadly high gear(Common
Dreams): "The recent surge in U.S. strikes in Pakistan
amounts to the heaviest concentration of strikes in the country
since last August and signals that the menacing presence of U.S.
drones in the skies of Pakistan are on a troubling increase and
not, as some had speculated, on a decline"

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